Kokoro Belmont
Kokoro Belmont (ココロ・ベルモンド - Belmont Heart) is a character introduced in Otomedius Excellent. She is a downloadable character representing Konami's famous action series Castlevania. Kokoro's Riding Viper is the Stavros, a ship resembling the Vic Viper T-301 with a detail of the Belmont Clan's cross logo and sporting a miniature Trigon ship. Kokoro is a middle student of St. Gradius, but her life is getting miserable since her older brother Julius Belmont really wants her to finish up education, graduate and become a vampire and demon hunter along with Gesshi Hanafuuma, but the Squadron really knows that just by her name and her demeanor, she's the first vampire and demon hunter to ever join the team. She is voiced by Hitomi Harada. Initial Weaponry Kokoro's initial weapon set is tricky to use effectively, and is based from weapons seen in the Castlevania series. The Holy Water '''is Kokoro's missile weapon which consists of an explosive bottle of holy water that is tossed out in front of the Stavros and then drops, producing a watery burst for a short time when it hits either the ground or an enemy. When this weapon is used at level 2, there is still only bottle of water tossed, but the drop speed of the bottle and the strength of the weapon is increased. Next is the '''Boomerang Cross, which is Kokoro's laser weapon. It looks and works just like its Castlevania incarnations do. It works very similarly to the Reflex Ring double weapon, just with a longer range (and, therefore, shot delay as well). You will obtain Level 2 of this weapon at Virtues Lv 1, but, unfortunately, you do NOT gain the ability to fire two crosses; what changes here is an increase in both the projectile's range and its strength. Perhaps at Level 3, the weapon will allow you to fire a second cross as well as further increasing the strength… The Axe is the double weapon, and it works just like its Castlevania incarnations do, with an axe projectile going in a set parabolic arc. Now, it should be noted that although it is tough to effectively use the Axe at Level 1 with its specific path and shot delay, in the hands of good players, the effort is worth it because of the heavy damage the weapon inflicts. Essentially, the Axe is a piercing weapon able to go through enemies and terrain. Against bosses, even Axe 1 is a heavy damage weapon; it should take no more than three hits to destroy a barrier, and the core takes about four hits on average (both of these are boss-dependent). At Levels 2 and 3, the Axe's firing rate, strength and number of projectiles on-screen per shot increases. It is recommended to try using Axe to facilitate faster boss repulsing and easier leveling-up of Kokoro. The final weapon in the set is Kokoro's signature special weapon, the Beam Whip. This weapon consists of a continuous pink laser emitted by the Stavros that moves with it, leaving a trail that goes across the screen in the process. This gives the weapon rather good coverage on the screen for taking out all of the lesser, formation enemies. Such overall ease of use, however, comes with a price in that the Beam Whip has low strength, and is therefore not effective on armored enemies, barriers and bosses. It is surmised that at Levels 2 and 3, this weapon gains a proportionally good amount of strength (again, let's get some confirmation here). Now we come to Kokoro's lone, miniature Trigon unit for her Option. It is a unique Option that works like none that have come before it. This Trigon unit moves opposite of your movement, and so that alone makes it difficult to effectively use, but there's more to it than that. First comes the bad news: IT WILL NOT SHOOT ANY OF THE WEAPONS YOU HAVE SELECTED. But here's the good news: it is also unique in that you can level up the unit. What's more, leveling up the Trigon unit is PERMANENT as long as you do not lose a life. Starting out at Level 1, the Trigon unit fires a normal shot. Once at Level 2, the shot changes to a white star projectile, and the Trigon unit now is able to fire in the opposite direction as well. Lastly, at Level 3, the weapon changes again, this time to a Level 1 Twin Laser. The last thing to mention is Kokoro's Platonic Break. It is called the Lightning Sword. But those of us that have played shmups for a long time need only look at the name Trigon (or its USA name Lightning Fighters) to know from whence it came. Then again, that game's ship was the inspiration for Deltatry in the boss rush of Gradius Gaiden, and that same attack is used by it; most of us are more likely to have seen the attack there first. S = Speed B = Beam Whip M = Holy Water L = Beam Cross ﻿D = Axe O = Trigon Unit (Levels up!) ? = Force Field Platonic Break = Lightning Sword (Trigon's Laser Beam) Gallery kokorob03.PNG|Kokoro's Loading Screen kokorob.PNG|Kokoro's Profile kokorob02.PNG|Kokoro's Platonic Break, Lightning Sword 216364_212860878743956_100000601363112_802189_3809028_n (1).jpg|Castlevania parody poster 227278_212860945410616_100000601363112_802191_706654_n.jpg|Her swimsuit along with the squadrons 377207_312263678788121_151748871506270_1481217_760860355_n.jpg 383080_311355415545614_151748871506270_1477222_521409746_n.jpg Trivia *Kokoro's DLC BGMs are based from multiple Konami videogames, featuring Castlevania, Trigon, A-JAX and Flak Attack. *Her Riding Viper is the Stavros, which is the Greek name for Cross. *Even though her suit is decorated with Iron Crosses, it's not related to the 1945 Strikers series like most people were thinking; Konami did not make those games. *Her Option, the Trigon unit, is familiarized to the player ship from the original Trigon (Lightning Fighters in the USA) game which in turn inspired Deltatry in Gradius Gaiden. *She uses a whip, since the idea for her design and her name obviously came from the Castlevania series. the established Castlevania canon, though, Kokoro's whip is either the Hunter Whip or another clone of the infamous Vampire Killer, which remains sealed. See also *Gesshi Hanafuuma *Trigon *A-JAX *Flak Attack *Castlevania Series Category:Otomedius Category:Characters